winget install Microso...

Foundry Local

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👋 Welcome to Foundry Local

Foundry Local brings the power of Azure AI Foundry to your local device without requiring an Azure subscription. It allows you to:

• Run Generative AI models directly on your local hardware - no sign-up required.
• Keep all data processing on-device for enhanced privacy and security
• Integrate models with your applications through an OpenAI-compatible API
• Optimize performance using ONNX Runtime and hardware acceleration

🚀 Quickstart

Install Foundry Local:

Windows: Install Foundry Local for your architecture (x64 or arm64):

winget install Microsoft.FoundryLocal

• MacOS: Open a terminal and run the following command: bash brew install microsoft/foundrylocal/foundrylocal Alternatively, you can download the installers from the releases page and follow the on-screen installation instructions.

Tip

For any issues, refer to the Installation section below.

Run your first model: Open a terminal and run the following command to run a model:

foundry model run phi-3.5-mini

Note

The foundry model run <model> command will automatically download the model if it’s not already cached on your local machine, and then start an interactive chat session with the model.

Foundry Local will automatically select and download a model variant with the best performance for your hardware. For example:

• if you have an Nvidia CUDA GPU, it will download the CUDA-optimized model.
• if you have a Qualcomm NPU, it will download the NPU-optimized model.
• if you don’t have a GPU or NPU, Foundry local will download the CPU-optimized model.

🔍 Explore available models

You can list all available models by running the following command:

foundry model ls

This will show you a list of all models that can be run locally, including their names, sizes, and other details.

🧑‍💻 Integrate with your applications using the SDK

Foundry Local has an easy-to-use SDK (C#, Python, JavaScript) to get you started with existing applications:

C#

The C# SDK is available as a package on NuGet. You can install it using the .NET CLI:

dotnet add package Microsoft.AI.Foundry.Local.WinML

Tip

The C# SDK does not require end users to have Foundry Local CLI installed. It is a completely self-contained SDK that will does not depend on any external services. Also, the C# SDK has native in-process Chat Completions and Audio Transcription APIs that do not require HTTP calls to the local Foundry service.

Here is an example of using the C# SDK to run a model and generate a chat completion:

using Microsoft.AI.Foundry.Local;
using Betalgo.Ranul.OpenAI.ObjectModels.RequestModels;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

CancellationToken ct = new CancellationToken();

var config = new Configuration
{
AppName = "my-app-name",
LogLevel = Microsoft.AI.Foundry.Local.LogLevel.Debug
};

using var loggerFactory = LoggerFactory.Create(builder =>
{
builder.SetMinimumLevel(Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.LogLevel.Debug);
});
var logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger<Program>();

// Initialize the singleton instance.
await FoundryLocalManager.CreateAsync(config, logger);
var mgr = FoundryLocalManager.Instance;

// Get the model catalog
var catalog = await mgr.GetCatalogAsync();

// List available models
Console.WriteLine("Available models for your hardware:");
var models = await catalog.ListModelsAsync();
foreach (var availableModel in models)
{
foreach (var variant in availableModel.Variants)
{
Console.WriteLine($"  - Alias: {variant.Alias} (Id: {string.Join(", ", variant.Id)})");
}
}

// Get a model using an alias
var model = await catalog.GetModelAsync("qwen2.5-0.5b") ?? throw new Exception("Model not found");


// is model cached
Console.WriteLine($"Is model cached: {await model.IsCachedAsync()}");

// print out cached models
var cachedModels = await catalog.GetCachedModelsAsync();
Console.WriteLine("Cached models:");
foreach (var cachedModel in cachedModels)
{
Console.WriteLine($"- {cachedModel.Alias} ({cachedModel.Id})");
}

// Download the model (the method skips download if already cached)
await model.DownloadAsync(progress =>
{
Console.Write($"\rDownloading model: {progress:F2}%");
if (progress >= 100f)
{
Console.WriteLine();
}
});

// Load the model
await model.LoadAsync();

// Get a chat client
var chatClient = await model.GetChatClientAsync();

// Create a chat message
List<ChatMessage> messages = new()
{
new ChatMessage { Role = "user", Content = "Why is the sky blue?" }
};

var streamingResponse = chatClient.CompleteChatStreamingAsync(messages, ct);
await foreach (var chunk in streamingResponse)
{
Console.Write(chunk.Choices[0].Message.Content);
Console.Out.Flush();
}
Console.WriteLine();

// Tidy up - unload the model
await model.UnloadAsync();

Python

The Python SDK is available as a package on PyPI. You can install it using pip:

pip install foundry-local-sdk
pip install openai

Tip

We recommend using a virtual environment such as conda or venv to avoid conflicts with other packages.

Foundry Local provides an OpenAI-compatible API that you can call from any application:

import openai
from foundry_local import FoundryLocalManager

# By using an alias, the most suitable model will be downloaded
# to your end-user's device.
alias = "phi-3.5-mini"

# Create a FoundryLocalManager instance. This will start the Foundry
# Local service if it is not already running and load the specified model.
manager = FoundryLocalManager(alias)

# The remaining code us es the OpenAI Python SDK to interact with the local model.

# Configure the client to use the local Foundry service
client = openai.OpenAI(
base_url=manager.endpoint,
api_key=manager.api_key  # API key is not required for local usage
)

# Set the model to use and generate a streaming response
stream = client.chat.completions.create(
model=manager.get_model_info(alias).id,
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is the golden ratio?"}],
stream=True
)

# Print the streaming response
for chunk in stream:
if chunk.choices[0].delta.content is not None:
print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content, end="", flush=True)

JavaScript

The JavaScript SDK is available as a package on npm. You can install it using npm:

npm install foundry-local-sdk
npm install openai

import { OpenAI } from "openai";
import { FoundryLocalManager } from "foundry-local-sdk";

// By using an alias, the most suitable model will be downloaded
// to your end-user's device.
// TIP: You can find a list of available models by running the
// following command in your terminal: `foundry model list`.
const alias = "phi-3.5-mini";

// Create a FoundryLocalManager instance. This will start the Foundry
// Local service if it is not already running.
const foundryLocalManager = new FoundryLocalManager();

// Initialize the manager with a model. This will download the model
// if it is not already present on the user's device.
const modelInfo = await foundryLocalManager.init(alias);
console.log("Model Info:", modelInfo);

const openai = new OpenAI({
baseURL: foundryLocalManager.endpoint,
apiKey: foundryLocalManager.apiKey,
});

async function streamCompletion() {
const stream = await openai.chat.completions.create({
model: modelInfo.id,
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What is the golden ratio?" }],
stream: true,
});

for await (const chunk of stream) {
if (chunk.choices[0]?.delta?.content) {
process.stdout.write(chunk.choices[0].delta.content);
}
}
}

streamCompletion();

Manage

This section provides an overview of how to manage Foundry Local, including installation, upgrading, and removing the application.

Installing

Foundry Local is available for Windows and macOS (Apple silicon only). You can install it using package managers or manually download the installer.

Windows

You can install Foundry Local using the following command in a Windows console (PowerShell, cmd, etc.):

winget install Microsoft.FoundryLocal

Alternatively, you can also manually download and install the packages. On the releases page select a release and expand the Artifacts list. Copy the artifact full URI (for example: https://github.com/microsoft/Foundry-Local/releases/download/v0.3.9267/FoundryLocal-x64-0.3.9267.43123.msix) to use in the below PowerShell steps. Replace x64 with arm64 as needed.

# Download the package and its dependency
$releaseUri = "https://github.com/microsoft/Foundry-Local/releases/download/v0.3.9267/FoundryLocal-x64-0.3.9267.43123.msix"
Invoke-WebRequest -Method Get -Uri $releaseUri -OutFile .\FoundryLocal.msix
$crtUri = "https://aka.ms/Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx"
Invoke-WebRequest -Method Get -Uri $crtUri -OutFile .\VcLibs.appx

# Install the Foundry Local package
Add-AppxPackage .\FoundryLocal.msix -DependencyPath .\VcLibs.appx

If you’re having problems installing Foundry, please file an issue and include logs using one of these methods:

• For WinGet - use winget install Microsoft.FoundryLocal --logs --verbose - select the most-recently-dated log file and attach it to the issue.
• For Add-AppxPackage - immediately after it indicates an error, in an elevated PowerShell instance, use Get-MsixLogs | Out-File MsixLogs.txt and attach it to the issue.
• Use Windows Feedback Hub and create a Problem in the "Apps > All other apps" category. Use the "Add More Details > Recreate my problem" and re-run the failing commands to collect more data. Once your feedback is submitted, use the "Share" option to generate a link and put that into the filed issue.

Note

Log files may contain information like user names, IP addresses, file paths, etc. Be sure to remove those before sharing here.

macOS

Install Foundry Local using the following command in your terminal:

brew install microsoft/foundrylocal/foundrylocal

Alternatively, you can also manually download and install the packages by following these steps:

Download the latest release from the releases page. 1.

Unzip the downloaded file. 1.

Open a terminal and navigate to the unzipped folder, run the following command to install Foundry Local:

./install-foundry.command

Upgrading

To upgrade Foundry Local, run the following command in your terminal:

Windows

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.FoundryLocal

macOS: If you installed Foundry Local using Homebrew, you can upgrade it with the following command:

brew upgrade foundrylocal

If you installed Foundry Local manually, you’ll first need to uninstall the current version using:

uninstall-foundry

Then, follow the installation instructions to install the latest version.

Uninstalling

To uninstall Foundry Local, run the following command in your terminal:

Windows: You can uninstall Foundry Local using winget in a Windows console (PowerShell, cmd, etc.):

winget uninstall Microsoft.FoundryLocal

Alternatively, you can also uninstall Foundry Local by navigating to Settings > Apps > Apps & features in Windows, finding "Foundry Local" in the list, and selecting the ellipsis (...) followed by Uninstall.

macOS: If you installed Foundry Local using Homebrew, you can uninstall it with the following command:

brew rm foundrylocal
brew untap microsoft/foundrylocal
brew cleanup --scrub

If you installed Foundry Local manually, you can uninstall it by running the following command in your terminal:

uninstall-foundry

Features & Use Cases

• On-device inference - Process sensitive data locally for privacy, reduced latency, and no cloud costs
• OpenAI-compatible API - Seamlessly integrate with applications using familiar SDKs
• High performance - Optimized execution with ONNX Runtime and hardware acceleration
• Flexible deployment - Ideal for edge computing scenarios with limited connectivity
• Development friendly - Perfect for prototyping AI features before production deployment
• Model versatility - Use pre-compiled models or convert your own.

Reporting Issues

We’re actively looking for feedback during this preview phase. Please report issues or suggest improvements in the GitHub Issues section.

🎓 Learn

• Foundry Local Documentation on Microsoft Learn
• Troubleshooting guide

⚖️ License

Foundry Local is licensed under the Microsoft Software License Terms. For more details, read the LICENSE file.